Put off law school for a county clerkship? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey everybody, so I'm a 0L who will likely be attending a 30-40 ranked law school with hopes to transfer up in to the top 20, but recently was put in a position to take on a state (Wisconsin) circuit court clerkship. I know federal clerkships are great on a resume for finding a good job later on, but what about state circuit courts? Being that they're much lower than a federal court do they not really "do it" for employers when they see that experience on a resume? Would it be better in the long run to take the position for a little over a year and then go on to law school or should I just get the Jd ASAP?

(tried to find a thread on this but couldn't so sorry if it's an annoying question that's been answered over the years)

[Ronan]

I think you're confused.

[lymenheimer]

http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 4&t=202715

[mjb447]

Hey everybody, so I'm a 0L who will likely be attending a 30-40 ranked law school with hopes to transfer up in to the top 20, but recently was put in a position to take on a state (Wisconsin) circuit court clerkship. I know federal clerkships are great on a resume for finding a good job later on, but what about state circuit courts? Being that they're much lower than a federal court do they not really "do it" for employers when they see that experience on a resume? Would it be better in the long run to take the position for a little over a year and then go on to law school or should I just get the Jd ASAP?

(tried to find a thread on this but couldn't so sorry if it's an annoying question that's been answered over the years)

I doubt it will really "do it" for employers, less because it's a position with an intermediate state appellate court (although that probably doesn't help) and more because it will apparently be work that you can do without any legal experience. Honestly, even the work you do as a 1L summer isn't hugely important except for signaling value - this position is in a completely different universe than a federal circuit clerkship.

Also, standard TLS advice: don't go to a law school unless you'd be happy graduating from it at median-ish.

[A. Nony Mouse]

OP, you're not allowed to post in this forum, but you're anonymous, so I can't move this to the proper forum, Ask a Law Student/Grad (no anon function there). So I'm going to lock this and you can re-ask there if you need more feedback.

Also, a clerkship available to someone without a JD isn't what people here talk about when they talk about clerkships (or what this forum is about), which are post-grad lawyer positions. So whether you do this at a state court or a federal court isn't really going to matter - you can good experience and a good recommendation out of either, which is really what you can expect out of this. It won't really matter whether it's state court or federal court for the purposes of pre-LS work, because it's going to be work you can do without a JD.

So if you want to get the experience, go for it - it will give you exposure to how the legal system works and probably give you a better sense of what you want to do as a lawyer. It will give you something on your resume to talk to employers about (which may or may not matter depending on what else you've done). But it's up to you entirely.